Several MEPs have reacted with indignation on Monday 21 September to revelations about the “FinCEN Files”, which have once again highlighted the banking sector's shortcomings in the fight against money laundering.
The investigation, carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) using 2,100 bank documents obtained by BuzzFeed media, revealed on Sunday that at least 2,000 billion dollars of “dirty money” has been transferred through the world's largest banks between 2000 and 2017.
In particular, the survey points to five major global banks, namely JP Morgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon. It shows that, in a number of cases, the assets of various people accused of corruption and crime have passed through or ended up in the safes of EU banks.
“Money laundering for the Taliban, capital flows from wealthy Russians, the financing of fraud. Banks are cooperating and the supervisory authorities are not reacting”, said Dutch MEP Paul Tang (S&D) on Twitter, while calling for tougher EU legislation.
In the eyes of MEP Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany), this scandal simply confirms that “the system is still failing”. His political group are going to request an assessment and a hearing on the scandal in the European Parliament’s new Taxation Subcommittee, he announced at a press conference on Monday.
The German MEP is of the opinion that establishing a European financial intelligence unit would help to remedy some of the existing shortcomings. Until now, all suspicious transaction reports have to be filled out by national financial intelligence units. Some work well while others, like the German unit, work very poorly, he explained.
However, in his view, this idea would meet much greater resistance in the EU Council than the idea of creating the role of a European money laundering supervisor.
For his part, the German MEP Markus Ferber (EPP) reiterated the need for there to be a European regulation in place with regard to this, while also deploring the fact that only 11 Member States have so far transposed the 5th anti-money laundering directive.
The Co-President of GUE/NGL, Manon Aubry (France), announced on Monday that the group had called for a debate on the scandal to be held at the next plenary session of the European Parliament. “The ‘FinCEN files’ money-laundering scandal should serve as a final warning about dubious banking practices and the role of tax havens”, she said.
Well aware of the problem, however, the European Commission committed itself in its Action Plan (see EUROPE 12482/8) to presenting, in 2021, specific proposals intended to fill the gaps in the European system for combating money laundering.
“Tackling this problem is a global challenge”, a Commission spokesman said on Monday in reaction to the scandal, explaining also that the institution stood ready to work with the United States and other global partners on this issue. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)